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What Does GF, GA And GD Mean In Soccer?

26 Oct, 2025

Learning how to communicate about football means understanding a wide variety of different words, phrases, acronyms, and abbreviations that might mean little to those uninterested in the sport. It’s almost like a brand new language; from initialisms like xG and PPDA to position-specific descriptors like inverted full-back , deep-lying playmaker or inside forward, more and more of these terms are entering the game as the importance of...

How Many Games Are There In A Premier League Season (And How It Compares To Other Leagues)

16 Oct, 2025

The English Premier League is viewed by many football fans as the most competitive league on the planet. If you're not on your game, you can be beaten by any team. Plus, the lack of a winter break and the congested nature of fixtures at certain points in the season means that it is an absolutely relentless league to play in. But how many games are there in a Premier League season? That's the question we'll be answering in this article, as...

The English Football Pyramid: A Guide To The Tiers Of English Football

12 Oct, 2025

Football is hugely popular all over the world, but the sport's roots are in the United Kingdom, and the level of fanaticism across the country is testament to that. Not only do the biggest and best clubs in the land attract huge crowds to grounds like Manchester United's Old Trafford , Liverpool's Anfield, and Newcastle United's St. James' Park, there is also a massive appetite for the game across the lower tiers of English football....

The Guard of Honor In Soccer: What Is It And What Is Its Purpose?

04 Aug, 2025

The 2024/25 Premier League season ended with an unusual spectacle: after a twist of fate left league champions Liverpool and FA Cup winners Crystal Palace facing up against each other on the final day of the season, both champions ended up giving the other team a guard of honor before the game. It's a gesture that seems to hark back to the formal, respectful Victorian roots of association football; however, it's actually a more recent...

Soccer Throw-In Rules: Complete Guide

21 Apr, 2025

A recent trend on X (formerly Twitter) focused on celebrating the ' Barclays Era ' of the Premier League, when sides like Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic and Stoke City bloodied the noses of the country's best teams in the 2000s and early 2010s. Praise was heaped on numerous players including Stoke's Rory Delap, a cult figure known above all for his long, arcing throw-ins. Delap was capable of causing havoc in opposition penalty areas, and in...

What Is An Obstruction In Soccer (+ What Exactly Are The Rules)?

16 Apr, 2025

Soccer is a sport that can ignite passions and cause the most mild-mannered people to become loud and aggressive. Most players and referees will be accustomed to a range of different calls and appeals that are vocalised during matches, from shouts about the awarding of specific set pieces to precise calls about individual indiscretions. For that reason, if you've ever played competitive football — whatever the level — you're probably...

What Is Man Marking? (And How Does It Compare To Zonal)

11 Apr, 2025

In recent years, the number of regular football supporters that feel confident talking about tactics in detail has grown significantly. From being introduced to more complex strategies like gegenpressing by pioneering coaches like Jurgen Klopp, to growing awareness about the purpose tactical innovations like the inverted full-back , to building knowledge about why coaches so value specific roles such as the left-sided ball-playing centre...

What Is "Playing Out From The Back" (And Why Is It So Popular)?

08 Apr, 2025

In the last decade, there has been a huge amount of evolution in terms of playing styles at the highest level of football, particularly in England. It wasn't long ago that 4-4-2 was the norm across the Premier League, and physical, long-ball football was widely accepted as the most effective way to survive in a relegation battle in England's top tier. Even the teams challenging for the title would usually aim to hit the ball long to a forward...

What Is A Half-Space In Soccer? Football Tactics Explained

03 Apr, 2025

If you regularly watch videos or listen to podcasts dedicated to football tactics, you probably will have come across the phrase 'half-space' at some point. It's often thrown around by tactics experts but there's still plenty of confusion amongst average fans about exactly what this term means. In this article we're going to be addressing that issue, explaining what people mean by a half space in soccer and fleshing out why this aspect of...

The Aggregate Score in Soccer: Why and When It Is Used

28 Mar, 2025

Association football — known across North America as soccer — has a language of its own. When you first start getting to grips with the game, you regularly come across words and phrases that would mean little to a non-football fan, from rules-based elements of the sport like 'offside' to more complex technical terms like 'counter-pressing', 'low block', or 'double pivot'. These are all terms that relate to on-pitch tactics, but there are...

What Is a Transition In Soccer?

25 Mar, 2025

Modern tacticians tend to divide football matches into four key phases of play. Three of those are fairly simple to understand: in-possession is when a team is in possession of the ball, out-of-possession is when their opponents have the ball and they must organise appropriately, and set pieces are dead-ball situations like corners, free kicks, and throw-ins (an area of the game that continues to grow in importance ). But the fourth...

What Are The Rules In Futsal?

22 Oct, 2024

When the governance of futsal was taken over by football's international governing body FIFA in 1989, it marked a significant turning point for the sport. The first FIFA Futsal World Championship took place that year, and in the decades that have followed the game has continued becoming more closely aligned with soccer, while also growing in popularity across the globe. However, many people who don't play the sport are still unfamiliar with...

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